Designed for high-end smartphones and tablets, the new processor has been designed to cope with even the most demanding apps, while also conserving energy when handling more basic tasks.

This works by four cores handling the processor-intensive tasks and four taking on the lighter jobs.

Woo said that the processor will allow users to perform several tasks at once without significantly draining the battery life. He also noted that there would be no dropped frames or stutters in high definition video playback.

According to Woo, the Exynos5 Octa will bring new levels of performance on a mobile device, while also giving up to 70% savings on battery than previous generations.

Glen Roland, vice president and head of mobile platforms for Electronic Arts, also appeared at the keynote to demonstrate Need for Speed: Most Wanted running on a tablet with the new chip.

He said that the processor was not just about speed, but also multitasking and enabling 3D games.

One of Samsung's biggest customers is Apple, with Goldman Sachs estimating that Samsung's AP chip sales to Apple could rise to 9.3 trillion won (£5.5bn billion) this year.

But as Apple and Samsung are the two dominant players in the smartphone market, it is thought that the iPhone marker wants to reduce its dependency on its big rival's chips going forward.

Samsung's mobile processor business is almost wholly dependent on Apple and its own Galaxy phone range, whereas other chip makers, such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, have broader client bases.

Wary of this, Woo said that the firm would be actively targeting Chinese and other emerging smartphone makers with its processors.

"(We) should diversify our customer base and are making such efforts already, adding some Chinese customers," he told Reuters.

Woo added: "We see emerging players who have potential to grow in smartphones and we will continue to make efforts to supply them with our chips."